Parachute



preferabl Patented June 24, 1924.

UNITED STATES PATENTl OFFICE.

HENRY VIEREGG, 0F GEEAIN'D ISLAND, NEBRASKA.

PAMCHUTE.

Application iled September 11, 1923, Serial No. 662,103. Renewed Hay 13, 1924.

To all 'whom t may concern.'

Be it known that I, HENRY Vmneee, a citizen of the United States, and a resident of Grand Island, in thecounty of Hall and State of Nebraska, have invented .a new and llmproved Parachute, of which the followin is a full, clear, and exact description.

his invention relates to a parachute, and has for an object the provision of means whereby the parachute will open mulch more uickly than any now in use so that parac nte descente from low altitude can be achieved with safety.

Another object resides in the revision of means whereby in use the most e cient eect of the forces of the air in opening the parachute is edected. i

A further object concerns the provision of means whereby the parachute is simple and ecient in construction and operatlon and is com act, so that it can be stored away in a Sma space.

rlihe invention is illustrated in the drawin 2 of whichlgure 1 is an elevation of the parachute;

Fig. 2 is a vertical section through the parachute;

Fig. 3 is a transverse section taken on the line 3-3 of Fig. 2;

Fig. i is a section taken on the line @-4 of Fig. 2, and

Fig. 5 1s a section taken on the line 5 5 of Fig. 2.

The form of the invention shown in the drawings is a preferred form, although it is understood that modifications in the construction and arrangement of the parts and in the character of tlm materials used may be ado ted without departing from the spirit o the invention.

As shown in the drawings, the preferred form of the parachute includes a body portion 1 of any suitable fabric, preferably cone sha ed, to the top" of which 1s fastened a loop o 'material 2 whereby a short length of rope orl cord 3y is connected, this cord being of such strength that it will brea when a load exceedin a definite l amount is placed on the parac ute. This 5, which extend from the bottom to thetop at regular intervals around the inner surface thereof. The lower edge ofthe body portion 1 of the parachute is folded over on itself, as seen at 6 in Fig. 4, to form a passage through which a heavy rope or cable 7 is fastened to make the lower edge more rigid. The sustaining cords from which the body of a person descending, or a load of any kind, is connected are represented by the numeral 8. These cords are joined together at their bottoms either directly to a belt connected to the person or to another rope or connection fastened to' the body of the load. These cords extend upwardly and are connected in any suitable manner to the various strips 5 at a-point midway mbetween the top and the bottom of the body portion,

so that the direct weight of the load in this parachute is supported not from the bottom edge of the arachute but from a point midway its len These ropes then extend u wardly along the body portion to the top ol] the parachute. As a matter of fact, these load-supporting ropes may be continuous strands extending from the bottom up to the mid point of the parachute on one side, thence to the to and then down the other side and exten'dlng back to the other point in one piece. Supported between the bottom of the load-supporting connections 8 and their point of connection to the parachute body portion 1 there is fastened and supported from these connections an inner funnel or collar 9 in the form of a frustroconical shell of suitable fabric which has its upper and lower edges provided with reinforcing rings such as l0 and 1l which ma be heavier ropes or cables passed throng folds in these edges. It will also be noted that auxiliary connections such as 12 are established at intervals between the lower edge of the inner guidin or directing shell 9 and the lower edge of t e body portion 1 of the parachute.

It has been found by repeated experiments with full-sized working models of this arachute, carrying loads of varying size, t at it opens almost immediately when released, so that with considerably hea loads, dropped from only one or two hun red feet,

4it has been found that these loads can be safely lowered to the ground; because,

whereas it takes the ordinary parachute a drop of four or five hundred feet before it opens, this one will open in a drop of a few A parachute which includes a body portion having a lower edge, load-supporting connections connected at intervals to the :iii body portion at points inside the lower edge and between said edge and the center of the ortion, an inner directin shell supon said connections and disposed substantially centrally beneath the center of the body portion, the lower edge of said shell 10 'being disposed beneath the lower edge of the tion.

, HENRY VIEREGG. 

